I took my 98 cav for the first out of town trip since i put the new clutch in, 291 miles and it still is a little over half full.

I had a problem with the coolant coming out of the overflow tank, i had too add 2 gallons total during the trip home.

Its late now so in the morning i am checking the water pump and try to see if the radiator has a blockage, the only place i have found leakage was at the over flow tank lid, car ran just over 195 on the temp gauge, kind of has me stumpped but at least she got me home safe and still got good mileage.

just sitting here thinking it over, the famous cracked head on 2200's sure seems to fit my cars symptoms,
if so I figure it will be the perfect excuse to get that 3400 i want so much.

that sucks to hear man. i always hate going out of town because im always afraid that something will go wrong.




coming back in 2008...

It didnt overheat?

it got hot only after the pressure tank spewed out most of the coolant, but if i fire it up in the drive way and let if heat up it acts fine, but under load on the road it starts spitting out coolant from the overflow tank. Oil is still clean. So i figure somthing is causeing the cooling system is over pressurizeing some how.

Tabs, i know what you mean especially if your car has higher mileage or what not. Although by the same token if you take exceptional care of your car keep up on every bit of maintenance etc, the chance of a breakdown is still there as it always is but a lot less likely to happen.

i would say that since it warms up fine(no to little coolant travel) that was it warms up it becomes blocked causing it to overflow. how does the coolant look??

coolant stays clean, i can warm it up in the drive way to full temp no problems, but soon as it gets under load driving it starts pushing the coolant out the over flow cap, and that is rated for 15 lbs.

Sounds like you have a small head gasket leak from one cylinder into a coolant passage, or a small crack in the engine some place. Pressure test the cap and system to see what happens. Either way, it sounds like compression pressure getting into the cooling system.


I'd rather drive an A than push a J...

i drove mine like that for a year or two, though around town driving would be ok, but the undetectable ammount of coolant in the oil killed the cam and crankshaft bearings, om the tear down it was all too easy to see, the head cracked in two spots both right by the exhaust valves , the 2 nearest the end near the tranny,

herc.. before you call it toast, find another J and try swapping the coolant tank cap. I have changed a few of them for that reason.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

yeah, try the cap first. I had the infamous cylinder to coolant jacket leak in my first J, but it showed another symptom; the coolant had a slight odor of gasoline.